1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a spark plug keeper designed to securely hold a spark plug in place and in electrical engagement under circumstances of high speeds and high vibrations.
2. Summary of the Invention
It has long been known that a boot and spark plug should be protected from the elements such as dust, rain, and the like. To this end, there have been numerous types of shields or screens, such as that shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,409,732 for a screening device for spark plugs; U.S. Pat. No. 2,468,226 for a shield for spark plugs; and U.S. Pat. No. 2,177,268, again for a shield for spark plugs. In the art, there is found the patent to Murphy, U.S. Pat. No. 2,468,226. This invention provides a shield for the connection of a spark plug and a electrical boot. It differs from the invention as claimed in that there is an annular ring-shaped portion which has an upstanding means which, however, does not bear against the boot and is maintained in tight captivating relation so that the boot is maintained in electrical engagement with the spark plug. Rather in Murphy, U.S. Pat. No. 2,468,226, the annular portion at the base 8 is between the spark plug and the surface into which it is engaged as opposed to threaded engagement with the hex nut portion. There are no tie means, there are no barb means, and there is no provision for maintaining the electrical engagement as claimed. Brown, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 2,409,732, provides a cup-shaped device composed of two which defines a ring portion which engages the under side of the hex nut but which is intended as a screen and does not provide for barbs on the upstanding portion which engage the boot and a tie means which maintains the upstanding portion's barbs in a captivating relationship with a boot. Problems in the past have also involved the difficulties resulting when electrical engagement of the boot of an electrical lead becomes disengaged from the spark plug terminal, thereby leading to a malfunction of a vehicle. This is especially a problem in the field of high performance vehicles, such as racing cars, which necessarily travel at high speeds with continuous significant vibrations.
It is, accordingly, an object of this invention to provide a keeper means for maintaining the electrical engagement of a spark plug with the electrical lead in a conventional electrical boot. The invention, generally speaking, is of an annular portion to be received about a spark plug with an annular portion in abutting engagement with the downwardly facing surface of a hex nut, conventionally found on a spark plug, and wherein the annular portion has upstanding finger means which are internally barbed and are of a flexible material so that, when a tie means is circumposed about the fingers, and drawn tightly squeezing the barbs into the boot, electrical engagement of the boot with the spark plug is assured.
In accordance with this general overall object, the instant invention will now be described on reference to the accompanying drawings wherein several embodiments of the device are illustrated.